A study recently published in Lancet Global Health, mapped all confirmed surgical cases of cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE) reported through the national echinococcosis surveillance system in Kyrgyzstan between 2014 and 2016.
They geolocated 3,161 confirmed cases of echinococcosis, and discarding the relapses, found 2,359 primary surgical cases of CE and 546 primary surgical cases of AE. Country-level crude surgical incidence was 13.1 per 100,000 population per year for CE, and 3.02 per 100,000 population per year for AE. However, at local community level, crude surgical incidence was up to 176 per 100,000 population for CE and 246 per 100,000 population for AE.
There is a remarkable within-country variation in the surgical incidence of CE and AE in Kyrgyzstan, and high local incidences at community level and hotspots have been identified. These hotspots were concealed by estimates and spatial analyses previously undertaken at district level. These findings highlight the importance of high-resolution disease data when exploring within-country variations.
The identification of significant hotspots and high incidence communities is a key component of disease control, enabling control efforts and epidemiological research to be targeted and prioritised. The spatial epidemiology methods used by Paternoster and colleagues, can be applied in other settings for better echinococcosis surveillance and control.